Native American Literature Panel:Individual and Collective Memory in Native American Literature

Much Native American literature has been firmly grounded, at least by itscritics, in the cultures out of which it has come, with particularattention paid to myths, legends and other forms of collective or culturalmemory. At the same time, many Native American authors have tried tograpple with the difficult and painful history of Native Americanexperience. We are seeking papers that consider the role ofmemory—collective and/or personal—within Native American literature; thatconsider the retelling of personal experience or oral history inliterature by or about Native Americans; that explore the role of memoryin preserving or transmitting collective or personal identity throughnarrative; that remember personal incidents for the purpose of survivingor preserving self and culture; that evaluate the accuracy or inaccuracyof memory; papers that consider memory as an ethical act; and papers thatinvestigate the danger of nostalgia.

Please send 500 word abstracts by March 1, 2006 to Dr. Shari Evans,Assistant Professor of English, Department of English, University ofMassachusetts Dartmouth Group I, 3rd Floor 285 Old Westport Road NorthDartmouth, MA 02747-2300, or by email to sevans_at_umassd.edu as a Wordattachment.

SCMLA will be held October 28-30, 2006 in Fort Worth, Texas. Conferenceparticipants must be SCMLA members at the time of the conference.